Comments on: Would You Play the Religion Card for a Day Off Work?

By: Student

Student — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:15:36 +0000

I am non-religious Jew who celebrates Rosh Hashana for cultural reasons. I find the entire scenario presented completely inequitable. What is offered to one employee should be offered to every other employee. Ideally, this teacher could make a stink about the fact that some people must work more than others (the holiday observers should be allowed to SWITCH days with others, not get freebies). However, that may be an non-pc hassle, so perhaps she should just take the day off with pay as a holiday. It is fibbing, which isn’t right, but certainly neither is making her work an extra day or forcing her to take a day off without pay when others don’t have to do the same.

By: Steven

Steven — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:35:39 +0000

I’d like to propose a new policy in which, in order to avoid discrimination, everyone gets all the religious holidays currently celebrated worldwide as paid days off.
I don’t think anyone would have to work more than a handful of days all year!
Sadly, I don’t think my company would go for it.
I recall that my university used to close for Jewish holidays just because of it’s background as a primarily Jewish university decades ago. I just appreciated the days off and had no real understanding of their significance.
Anything that adds a day off to the calendar is a good thing – in Ontario the provincial government has added a February 18th “Family Day” holiday just because there were no holidays that month (and they wanted to win the election).

By: julie

julie — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:20:35 +0000

Ha ha–didn’t do it! I talked to my principal about it. Turns out these days are “personal necessity” and come out of that bank of days. And anybody can use them for any religion. It’s just that there are so many Jewish employees that the principal wanted to find out how many subs he needs! So now that’s clear, and I didn’t feel right taking the day off. Stupid conscience.

By: Cass

Cass — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:54:53 +0000

I thought this would be a no brainer. I’m not religious so I would not take a day off with pay – I would find that unethical.

I do think a better way to do this would be to designate a few floater days that people could take off. Whether for a religious day or an awesome weather day would be at the discretion of the user.

By: Geis

Geis — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:50:07 +0000

How about writing in that I plan on taking the day off with pay, not to observe any religious holiday but to go to the magistrate’s office to file papers pursuant to violations of the Establishment clause.

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:16:01 +0000

Uh, and NO, these days do not cut into other vacation time. They really are extra holidays. Vacation time does not work the same for teachers as it does for other regular employees, at least not in my teaching job.

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:14:47 +0000

Oh, and yes, one must pay to go to temple on the high holidays. I’m not sure why this is. Maybe some real Jews on here know the answer. But I think it’s because so many of us don’t go to temple except for the holidays. I believe there is no charge for the rest of the year.

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:12:54 +0000

I do not have an answer for you about your mission trip, N, but here is what I decided to do, and I hope it will satisfy the non-deceitful among you, since I consider myself to be non-deceitful by nature.

I sent an email to my union representative that said:

I believe this year’s policy of letting us take paid holidays only if we are Jewish and observing Yom Kippur and Rosh Hoshanah is possibly discriminatory. There is no reason that employees of certain religions should get extra paid time off.

On the other hand, the memo we received does not state which religion we are out observing, so I suppose we could just enjoy a beautiful day with family, worshipping life and all it has to offer like good atheists–and collect our holiday pay.

Since being Jewish is a birthright, I intend to take the days paid. However, I still object to this policy on the grounds that it affords preferential treatment to employees who are Jewish. Indeed, since Judaism is most often a club we’re born into, the policy is more discriminatory than one that gives special treatment to Christians. It’s easy to convert to Christianity, or so I hear.

My intention is to take the days off and spend them with my family, who do not get to see my baby as much as they would like. My family are all Jewish, but they are too old to schlep over to the temple for high holidays. Actually, Aunt Rose might make it, and in that case, we’ll visit with her afterwards. For all intents and purposes, I am celebrating the Jewish holidays by paying respect to my Jewish family. So there is no dishonesty involved, and I’ve made my protest.

By the way, our union rep at school was brought up Jewish Orthodox, and he is now a devout atheist, so I’m sure he will be on the same page.

Julie

By: N

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:10:06 +0000

Brian’s link made me laugh myassoff.

I really think it is wrong of the school system to differentiate based on why someone wants to take the day off. Either give it to them, or don’t. As for the original question, I think it is okay for anybody to accept that day with pay. Just look at a calendar that states that it is Yom Kippur. Technically, you “observed” Yom Kippur.

This reminds me of a similar quandry I’ve been thinking about. I’m a musician, formerly a church musician, and when I was playing in the church, I had the opportunity to take a trip to Brazil to play in the orchestra at the International Christian Women’s Conference there. I went, and it was an amazing trip.

Fast forward to now; I no longer really consider myself christian. I guess at this point I’m really agnostic, because I don’t know what I think. So, if I get another invitation to a music mission, would it be wrong of me to go? It’s not like I’m going to be proselytising; I’d be playing music to already christian audiences – but I would be misrepresenting myself. And it’s not like I’d be taking money from anyone to go; we pay our own way.

Wow. Didn’t really mean to make this about me. But I’d love to hear opinions…

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:02:48 +0000

I would just go to work. If you take the day off for a religious observance, aren’t you reinforcing the notion that religion should give you the right to take days off? Aren’t we against using religion as a tool in this way? *shrugs* Maybe that’s just me.